Soccer Stars Neymar and Iniesta on Set

Every four years, people around the world grab their noisemakers, don their team jerseys and gather in stadiums, living rooms and local bars to watch the World Cup. How can such an expansive and consuming event be covered in a 60-page magazine issue? And then how do you boil that into a single cover image?

Naturally, we decided to zoom in on some of the tournament’s stars. “Whether you know the sport or don’t, or have a national team to root for, when you watch these players, it’s amazing,” Clinton Cargill, a photography editor at the magazine, says. So Dylan Coulter, a New York-based photographer with experience shooting athletes, was recruited to capture Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar da Silva Santos Jr. and Lionel Messi. Readers of the Sunday paper will get one of those players on the cover of their magazine. (Distribution of the three separate covers was random.) Here, Coulter talks about the three days he spent in Spain photographing and filming them.

How were you able to get access to these soccer players?

When this project started out, it came into focus how massive this sport is and how important this game is to so many people — first, because it was incredibly challenging for us to get time with the players. We were shooting at an intense time in their season. So it took a lot of effort from the magazine photo editors to schedule time with them. And once that time was secured, it was unclear we were going to get the players once we arrived.

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The still portraits and videos of the players are pretty straightforward, but how did you shoot the multiple-exposure photographs?

It’s a mix of science and art. I’m taking individual photographs of the players at every step of the move that they were doing, and then those photographs are composited in post-production. The reason I do this as single shots is that it allows more control. From a technical perspective, taking the separate images allows us in post to control how each image is seen. In a traditional multiple-exposure photograph, it can get very cluttered because each shot has equal value. But these can be made more opaque or more transparent, and in that way, you can create a visual hierarchy.

What were your interactions with the players like during the shoots?

When the players arrived, I would introduce myself briefly and explain the project as a whole. I think this was a really unique project for them because it wasn’t for a company or a commercial. It was different; it was something to celebrate them and celebrate the World Cup.

Then, because I wanted this to be really personal to them, I found that it was best not to give them too much direction at all. I tried to keep it general. I would say, “I need you to start here and make a move this way,” but not too much more than that. With Neymar, I asked him to kick the soccer ball at me while I was taking pictures, and he loved that. You can tell that he is a fun-loving, playful guy, and that was really motivating for him, so that relaxed him some.

Did you find that the athletes were more comfortable kicking the ball around for the camera, rather than posing for the cover shot?

I certainly noticed that. A lot of athletes may come off as being distant or arrogant, but it’s just not being comfortable. They’re not actors, they’re athletes, and what they do is primarily on the field. We started with the portraits and then moved to the multiple-exposure shot and we did video at the end. I think, generally speaking, there was definitely more comfort and ease as we went.

Will this experience shooting the players change the way you watch the World Cup?

I think so. The people that we photographed for this issue are some of the best players in the world. So that personalized it more for me as a viewer. The other aspect I will be thinking about is the pressure that rests upon these guys’ shoulders. Their countries are depending on them to win this, and their importance goes beyond mere athletes playing a game — it takes on much more. There’s a lot leading up to the World Cup that is beyond just being on the field, so I’ve gained appreciation for the pressures that they experience.

Bruce Grierson wrote this week’s cover story about Ellen Langer, a Harvard psychologist who has conducted experiments that involve manipulating environments to turn back subjects’ perceptions of their own age.Read more…